While we are all sitting here waiting for the last of the official playoff brackets to be released, here is it is, your Saturday Morning Quarterback, the misty-eyed edition.
Thursday night I was in beautiful Lawrence, Nebraska, for the battle of Class D-2 unbeatens, BDS at Lawrence-Nelson. Let’s cut to the chase - BDS was the better team, by some, and won the game 36-0. Thing is, I’m not sure any other D-2 team could have done any better.
When you read or hear or see (all good things) about BDS the first thought that pops in your mind is Kale Kleinschmidt. It’s sort of Dan Aykroyd trying not to think of the Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man in the original (and only decent) Ghostbusters movie. You can’t help it.
Good enough, Kale’s plenty good, unless you try to sub it for spinach. Bad idea. Then again, eating spinach doesn’t exactly trip my trigger either. While Kleinschmidt handles the ball most of the time and is on his way to becoming a two-time all-stater, the bigger news for BDS is, well, that it’s bigger, and stronger, and faster, than most (all?) Class D-2 teams roaming the earth.
While watching the game unfold I spoke with several Lawrence-Nelson fans and they weren’t necessarily upset with their boys being shut out in this game; in fact, I had several tell me the Raiders were playing a fine game, just doing it against a superior opponent. All of that is true - even the part where Lawrence-Nelson fans actually spoke to me. (wink)
While at the game I got to spend some time with a couple of my favorite couples, Jerry and Jill Catlett from Bruning and Roger and Cathy Biltoft from Nelson. Jerry and I go all the way back to high school - he at Ansley, me at Arnold - and Jill was the volleyball coach at Arcadia while I was getting my career off the ground (um, I DID do that, didn’t I?) as the cub sports reporter at the Custer County Chief in Broken Bow.
We had a great little chat, me trying to mend fences after taking a somewhat broad-sided shot at Jill during our football picks segment on NTV. Jill is a real sweet lady and I had no business addressing her as a “feisty broad” during the picks; at least that’s the way I felt until Jerry told me that was just fine. (wink)
As for Biltoft, we go back to second floor Randall Hall, located on the beautiful campus of what was at the time Kearney State College. We were in each other’s wedding and through my friendship with Roger I was subjected to a number of nefarious characters from the greater Nelson area, Rick Mazour, Lorrell Peterson, Randy Meyer and John Herz among them. My life has never been the same since.
Between all that, and a fly-by by another Randall Hall hero, Kelly Ficken of Davenport, I did actually squeeze off some photos, and see some of the game. Some.
* Friday didn’t start as well as I’d have liked, mostly because you can’t always believe what you read in the newspaper. (Ahem.) I was under the impression the six-man classic between Riverside and Spalding Academy would be played at Spalding starting at 3 p.m. It did. Get played in Spalding, I mean.
Just that it started at 7 p.m.
Spalding is a lovely community, and I made good use of my time by stopping by the People’s Service complex owned and operated by Spalding Academy head coach Troy Kleffner. We both had some time to kill before our next game, so we had a real nice visit. And I got to marvel at that beautiful St. Michael’s Catholic church, all of which made the drive worthwhile. Except for the part where there was no game, of course.
Part of what was so perfect about an alleged 3 o’clock kick at Spalding was it timed out perfectly for the rest of my trip, which would take me down Highway 281, across on Highway 22 (where I went through Scotia and near North Loup, being reminded of all of those community’s past football greatness), along through Arcadia (where I was certain there would be a statue commemorating the career of one Rob Lewandowski, but there was not), past Westerville (home to former high school greats Ken Kaelin and Glen Troyer, the former my friend and former Husker, the latter my friend and former high school superintendent) and into Broken Bow.
Ah yes, Broken Bow. On a more platonic level let me say the community of Broken Bow is booming in a way few in our state is. As I told people later in the night, Broken Bow has become what it had wanted to be since I was in high school, taking advantage of its geography and community leadership to build a dynamic business base and lots of momentum for future growth. Love that town, and all it has meant to me over the years.
For the most part, those years I speak of came in the late 1970s and early 1980s when I was just getting my career off the ground. (Refer to earlier statement regarding my career.) My job at the Chief was the greatest job I will ever have, as it was just me and a pad, a pen and a camera, and the freedom to pick the games of my choice just about ever night of the week.
Me: Is this heaven?
My boss: No, this is Custer County.
I took an extended lap around town, drove by my first home away from home, the basement apartment located across the street north of the school, a home at the time owned by the district judge. Insert your joke here.
I met so many good people in my three years at the Chief, and like anybody on their own for the first time I had many of them over to that basement apartment of mine, Biltoft among them. I later lived in a little white house in the south part of town, a two-bedroom number, where at one point all the major appliances and furniture in the place cost me a grand total of seven dollars. I know, I shouldn’t have blown five dollars of that on the sofa, my bad.
I didn’t get to drive by the Chief office itself, as there is some major street work being done in that neck of the woods, but I drove north of it and took a gander. I remember after my successful interview for the job (you’re probably right but I did NOT ask if anybody else applied), my editor Keith Sherman walked my up the steps and into the newsroom, where he showed me my work station.
OMG, I have a desk, I remember thinking. And a phone. My own phone. And it had two lines, determined by a white plastic knob you turned vertical for line one, horizontal for line two.
Me: Is this heaven.
My boss: No, this is the Custer County Chief.
* Once I left town by driving down memory lane I wound up in the lovely community of Callaway, Nebraska, where I would watch unbeaten Elm Creek stay that way, outscoring the formerly unbeaten South Loup Bobcats 66-48. Elm Creek is big, strong and fast - so good to see my boy Nate Bartling back in action after missing four weeks with a knee injury - and they will do some damage in the Class D-1 playoffs. So will South Loup, a team loaded with talented juniors, who just couldn’t hold up on defense against such a powerful running attack.
Being at this game also flooded my memory bank. For four years my wife Penni and I owned the Elm Creek paper, the Beacon-Observer, and during that time I got to know many very nice people, several of which I got to visit with Friday night. (As an aside, I was tripping over eight-man football coaches, as Perkins County head man Carlie Wells and his staff and Palmer head coach Nathan Glause and his staff were in attendance, with their own pens and pads in hand. BTW, both their unbeaten teams are poised for long, successful playoff runs.)
Remember, I am an Arnold Cardinal, and my school and Callaway have joined forces to become the South Loup Bobcats, so this game was about more than just football. Had the pleasant chore of bumping into Melanie Chesley, a former Arnold schoolmate of mine, who just happens to be married to the very lucky Lane Chesley, who just happens to be the son of Ole and Donna Chesley, who just happened to recently celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary. Donna was my right hand girl when Penni and I owned the Callaway Courier in the late 1980s. Lane told me Ole and Donna, 93 and 89 respectively, are doing great, and that’s probably the best news I received on a very great weekend.
Football, yeah there was some football over the past couple of nights, but ol’ Huskerland Bob enjoyed more than final scores, he got the chance to remember some of the best days of his life.
* If you are still with me (and I couldn’t blame you if you baled out on that long, misty-eyed trip down memory lane) here are some thoughts about the final weekend Nebraska high school regular football for 2016:
Stanton 13, Battle Creek 7. Great win for my boys from Stanton, who were kind enough to stop at our office this summer.
Bellevue 45, Omaha Burke 41. Wow, what a great game, with my boy Jaylin Bradley scoring the game-winner with two seconds left in regulation. Bravo, Jaylin!
Chase County 21, Chadron 20. Longhorns complete perfect district season when Chadron misses PAT. Great break, tough break.
Cody-Kilgore 53, Arthur County 33. Cowboys complete perfect regular season and position themselves as a prime contender for reaching the six-man final.
Columbus 31, Blair 21. Zero wins in 2015, seven wins and a playoff berth in 2016. It’s good to be a Discoverer.
Columbus Lakeview 30, Ord 18. Win boosts Lakeview into C-1 field, knocks Ord out.
Columbus Scotus 48, Adams Central 26. Easy to lose track of the defending C-1 state champs, but they are district champs and back in the playoffs.
Lincoln Southeast 27, Grand Island 20. Southeast vs. East in the first round is going to be a barn burner game. Just sayin’.
Norris 26, Beatrice 22. Another good morning to wake up and be Brody Zabel. He recovers a fumble at the Norris six-yard line, then three plays later caps a 94-yard game-winning drive with a 41-yard TD run.
St. Paul 35, Central City 0. Biggest shocker of the night, not by who won but by how many. Beware the Wildcats in these playoffs.
Wahoo 21, Bishop Neumann 0. This deserves a little higher billing, as the Warriors come back from Aquinas loss to completely lock down the Cavaliers, winning the district title in the process.
